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Eating Well While Losing Weight


Medically reviewed by
  • Astrin Damayanti, R.D.

Question

My daughter and I are vegans. We are knowledgeable and eat a very healthy diet. She is about 40 lbs overweight and I need to lose 10 lbs. She has significantly reduced her food quantity, but it's hard to get nutrition and diet at the same time. Any tips?

Answer

First off, great job for trying to improve your health and eating healthy!

Weight loss really comes down to calories in and calories out. Eating healthy is a good start but for weight loss, how many calories we consume at the end of the day is what really matters.

If you have not tried calorie counting, I would recommend a food journal to keep track of your daily caloric intake. I usually recommend between 1200-1500 calories a day for women for weight loss, depending on their circumstances.

If you have tried the lower range and are still not losing weight, then I would evaluate your exercise routine. Start exercising if you have not, and if you exercise now, I would make sure that your workout is hard and challenging enough.

Best wishes to you and your daughter!

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